Jing Jiang, PhD
Lab Director
Assistant Professor
Google Scholar, Twitter, CV
Dr. Jiang is an Assistant Professor in the Stead Family Department of Pediatrics and Department of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. She completed her doctoral research program at Humboldt University of Berlin & Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany, and postdoctoral research training at Stanford University and Harvard Medical School & Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is interested in the neural and psychological processes (language and emotion) underlying social interaction and their relations to neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders.
Zhuoran Li, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
CV
Zhuoran is a postdoctoral research scholar in the Jiang Lab. He was the Champion in National College Entrance Exams in Hunan Province, China. He received both his B.S degree in Physics and Ph.D. in Psychology from Tsinghua University. His main research interest focuses on how the human brain processes speech and language in diverse contexts and populations. He has utilized the fNIRS-based inter-brain approach to investigate the neural mechanisms of speech-in-noise comprehension in young adults, older adults, and non-native speakers. In the Jiang lab, he is interested in incorporating a set of cutting-edge and multimodal technologies, such as fMRI, intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG), eye-tracking, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), aiming at advancing the knowledge of neurocognitive mechanisms underlying human communication.
Yong Jiao, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
Yong is a postdoctoral research scholar in the Jiang Lab. He received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from East China University of Science and Technology. His research focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders through multimodal neuroimaging and computational modeling. He is particularly interested in combining brain imaging, clinical measures, and advanced machine learning approaches to identify individualized biomarkers and brain–behavior relationships.
Bella (Xianqing) Liu, MSc
Neuroscience Ph.D. Student
Bella is a graduate student in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience. She received her MSc degree in Psychology from the University of Edinburgh where she gained research experience in neurophysiology. Her research interests focus on understanding the brain networks involved in emotion and language cognition and how they are altered in mood and communication disorders, with the ultimate goal of identifying more effective and individualized neurotherapeutic targets to facilitate the development of treatments for these disorders. Aiming at these goals, she is investigating the causal links between cortical and deep brain regions using intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).
Ziyan Chen, MSc
Visiting PhD Student
Ziyan Chen is a visiting PhD student in the Jiang lab. He received his MSc in Surgery (Neurosurgery) from the Central South University. His main research interest focuses on exploring and understanding neuro-oncology related biological networks through multimodal neuroimaging methods and machine learning algorithms. In the Jiang lab, He is interested in exploring multimodal data acquisition, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and conducting network-symptom joint analyses, aiming to translate and investigate the relationship between neuro-oncology networks and clinical characteristics.
Joel Bruss, BA
Imaging Specialist & Research Manager
Joel has over a decade of experience in lesion mapping studies as well as structural and functional imaging. Current projects focus on quantifying lesion load in white matter tracts and processing fcMRI data.
Emily Gittle, BS
Research Intern
Emily is a research intern in the Jiang Lab. She received her BS in Neuroscience from Boston College. Her research interests focus on exploring the neural representations of social and emotional atypicality in mood disorders to inform noninvasive treatment strategies. In the Jiang lab, she contributes to several projects, primarily utilizing concurrent transcranial magnetic stimulation and functional magnetic resonance imaging (TMS-fMRI) with participants exhibiting high negative affect symptoms to elucidate the relationship between these symptoms and TMS-evoked neural effects.
Nandi Zhang, BA
Research Assistant
Nandi is a research assistant in the Jiang Lab. She received her BA in neuroscience and psychology from Vanderbilt University, where she gained experience in child neuropsychology. Her research interests focus on the neural and psychological mechanisms of social communication and emotion regulation in neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions. In the Jiang Lab, she contributes to an ongoing project investigating the effects of noninvasive amygdala modulation, while expanding her expertise in multimodal technologies, including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
More People on the Way Soon, Stayed tuned!! ^ _ ^
The Jiang Lab Alums!
We are proud of our previous members of the team who went on to accomplish bigger and better things!
- Corey Plate, previous rotating MSTP student in the Jiang Lab (Summer 2025), now continuing his MSTP program at the University of Iowa.
- Sophia Symalla, previous undergraduate BSURP student in the Jiang Lab (Summer 2025), now a senior at University of Wisconsin - River Falls.
- Kang Wu, previous visiting PhD student in the Jiang Lab (2023 - 2024), now earned his PhD from the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. [GitHub]
- Maya Sky, previous research intern in the Jiang Lab (2022 - 2023), now a PhD student at West Virginia University.